As the autumn air crisps and we head into the colder months, there is nothing quite like gathering the kids around a cozy fire for storytime. But what if your read-aloud time could double as your entire homeschool curriculum? This week, our family dove deep into the breathtaking, frosty world of the Dakota Territory with The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder**. Reading about how the Ingalls family survived the historic blizzards of 1880 sparked so many questions about history, survival, and science that I knew I had to build something bigger. If you are looking to trade dry textbooks for a rich, immersive living book experience, here is how you can transform this classic frontier tale into a rigorous, hands-on 6-week unit study for your middle schooler.
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Mornings:
We start every morning off with our prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance. Below is a video of how we start our mornings.
Don’t have a flag? Grab one HEREand print it out to put up somewhere… you could even let the kids make a flag to proudly display. Amazon also has some little ones like this one HERE and HERE.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.
🔑 The Long Winter: Teacher Answer Key
Week 4: The Fire and the Light (Chapters 18–22)
- Reading Schedule:
- Day 1: Ch. 18 (The Foraging)
- Day 2: Ch. 19 (The Cold Snap)
- Day 3: Ch. 20 (The Waves of Cold)
- Day 4: Ch. 21 (The Three Days’ Blizzard)
- Day 5: Ch. 22 (Cold and Dark)
Language Arts
- Vocabulary:
- Foraging
- twisting
- tallow
- bleak
- stark
- congealed.
- Discussion Question:
- Why did twisting hay into tight sticks become so vital for the family’s physical survival?
- What does this tell you about Pa’s resourcefulness?
- Writing Activity: Write a short comparative essay contrasting how you light and heat your room today with how the Ingalls family used a simple button-and-rag tallow lamp for lighting.
Optional Activities:
Math Word Problem
Problem: To save fuel, Ma creates a makeshift tallow lamp out of grease and a scrap rag. She determines that the lamp consumes grease at a steady linear rate. At 5:00 PM, the lamp holds 8 ounces of liquefied tallow. By 8:30 PM, only 2.75 ounces of tallow remain.
- Determine the hourly consumption rate of the tallow lamp as a decimal.
- If Ma relights the lamp the next night with exactly 5 ounces of tallow remaining, write an inequality to show how many hours (h) the lamp can safely burn before completely running dry.
Optional Activities:
- Beginning Fractions & Decimals by Rock ‘N Learn
- Bubble Pop! Math Challenge Games – Gr. 3‑4
- CoolMath4Kids
- PBS Kids Games
Geography & History
- Topic: Natural fuel resources on the treeless Great Plains. Learn why there were so few trees on the open prairies and how early settlers substituted timber with twisted hay, dried slough grass, and buffalo chips.
Optional Activities:
Science
- Topic: Combustion and state changes. Study how fats (like cattle tallow or lard) change from solids to liquids when heated and act as steady fuel sources for controlled flames.
Optional Activities:
- Mystery Science
- All About Life Science Activities
- National Geographic Match the Fact Cards
- National Geographic Kids What Animal Am I Card Game
Life Skills
- Topic: Making homemade lights or resource preservation. Create a simple rolled beeswax candle or emergency light source to understand how primitive lighting functioned without electricity.
Optional Activities:
- Plain and Not So Plain Home Economics Course (she has other subjects as well)
PE, Health & Safety
- Topic: Indoor air quality and safety around open indoor flames. Discuss the severe dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke ventilation issues faced by pioneers burning unconventional materials indoors.
Art, Music & Crafts
- Topic: Tallow or soap carving. Use a simple bar of soft soap to carefully carve out shapes of cold-weather objects like hay-bales, a small stove, or winter wildlife.
- Complete Guide to Soap Carving**
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